Hope Solo Assault Case Getting Little Publicity: She's Famous - But Apparently Domestic Abuse Is Only Important When The Perpertrator is a Man

By Kevin Paul DupontHope Solo, her two Olympic gold medals (2008, ’12) earned with the United States women’s soccer team, learned last week that her trial on domestic abuse charges has been set for Jan. 20.

And then her life went on. Virtually absent any public hue and cry. It has been that way ever since she was arrested back in June. No doubt that’s in part because TMZ has yet to reveal a Hope Solo “Goalkeeper Goes Ballistic’’ tape as it did when Ray Rice was shown flattening his then-fianceé and pulling her unconscious body out of an Atlantic City elevator the way a butcher might drag a slab of beef across a freezer floor. And, to be fair, it’s possible Solo never did go ballistic and the charges against her are exaggerated or an outright sham.

For the record, her attorney, Todd Maybrown, claims Solo was the victim in the alleged dustup.

Yet it remains disturbing, and more than hints at a double standard, that Solo’s alleged acts have flown so beneath the radar of public opinion, and have been all but ignored by those who put her in uniform, including US Soccer. In a time when domestic abuse is so much in our collective sports consciousness, so reviled and condemned, Solo’s alleged actions have barely caused a stir.

Why? Because this is a woman as the alleged perpetrator? Because this is a female soccer player and not a male football player?

Abuse is abuse, be it dished out by a man or a woman, be the victim male, female, adult, or adolescent. No matter what the sport. Solo is a professional athlete, a decorated US national team member idolized by young fans, especially American girls with Olympic dreams. We certainly know from recent cases that a man similarly charged with domestic abuse would not be allowed to meander so, shall we say, leisurely and inconspicuously through the due process of our legal system or the court of public opinion.